BARGAINING UPDATE #1

March 17, 2026

TL;DR: We held our first bargaining session with Northwestern, where we introduced our priorities and pushed back on unfair ground rules (like using vacation time for bargaining and limits on transparency). We presented all of our non-economic proposals and affirmed our commitment to keeping members fully informed. The next session is scheduled on April 21, and the University hasn’t committed to a regular schedule yet—so we may need member action to keep things moving. Join the March 19 GMM for a full update (RSVP here).

Dear members,

Today, for the first time, postdoctoral workers and research associates sat across the table as equals with the Northwestern University bargaining committee in our first bargaining session.

During this first bargaining session:

• Members of each bargaining committee introduced themselves. Members of our bargaining committee provided opening statements laying out why we need a union, addressing our main bargaining goals, and explaining why each goal is a priority for our first contract.

• Northwestern University followed by submitting ground rules for bargaining that we should abide by. Two big points of contention in those ground rules were:

  • (1) Ahead of bargaining, the University indicated BC members should use their vacation days to compensate for the time spent bargaining. We successfully pushed back on this discriminatory policy, showing that we are used to arranging our schedule outside of work hours for conferences, writing, so we don’t need to take personal time off. It is unacceptable to penalize any union member for union activity.

  • (2) NU wanted to forbid us from releasing ANY communications about the negotiations without mutual agreement. We refused to accept any limitations on our abilities to communicate with membership and reaffirm our commitment to keep members informed through a transparent bargaining process.  We will always share those bargaining updates with you all, and you can read proposals on the same day we present them to the university. You can find our counter proposal here, and the University's latest proposal here. 

We presented all our non-economic proposals to the NU bargaining committee. You can follow the progress on our proposals/counter-proposals on our bargaining tracker here. 

Finally, we discussed bargaining logistics and scheduling. We were disappointed that the next session of bargaining was not possible until April 21st, 2026 and the inability of Northwestern to commit to a regular schedule at the table today. However, we are hopeful that the verbal agreement provided by the University indicating a more regular schedule would be established at the next sessions will be upheld and we can move forward with our bargaining process. We asked the university to propose future dates by the end of the week, and will need member action if they fail to respond. 

Please join us at the next General Members Meeting, Thursday, March 19th, from 12 to 1 PM to hear more about our first bargaining session. RSVP here.